Tacet al fine

[Felipe Copaja]

Hello:
I'm working on a piece (still in Finale) that has many time signature changes, in which several instruments stop playing about halfway until the end. In those parts, is it ok to add a final multimeasure rest with a tacet al fine text, despite there are several metrics changes afterwards? Or should I always unveil those changes (and rehearsal letters)?

Felipe Copaja

[David Ward]

This what I have done, without adverse comment, in the past.

My Beyond the Far Haaf is a 55 minute symphonic cantata for two singers and large orchestra, in three substantial parts of unequal length. It has about seven eighths of the orchestra silent for the second half of Part 2 (the shortest of the three). In the manuscript parts for the first performances in 1992 & 1993 I marked the silent orchestral parts “Tacet until end of Part 2 A2–N2 (about 7 minutes)”, without any indication of time signature or other changes, or of where the various rehearsal marks fell. That seemed to be entirely acceptable and no one said anything or appeared to be remotely disapproving or discombobulated.

I hope this helps, although it might be worth saying that perhaps computer generated parts may not be thought of in quite the same way as manuscript ones.